Daily Mail
February 24, 2014
More than 750 foreign criminals – including killers, rapists and paedophiles – are walking the streets after jumping bail.
They should have been deported after completing their sentences, but instead have been released from detention under human rights laws and then gone on the run.
Among those at large are serious violent criminals, including 11 rapists, at least two killers and several child abusers and arsonists.
The previously unseen figures show the total also includes six burglars, 26 robbers, dozens of violent thugs and 76 drug dealers.
The Home Office is refusing to identify the criminals by name because to do so would breach their ‘right’ to privacy.
The figures were released to the Daily Mail after a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Home Office revealed that 752 foreign offenders who have committed crimes in Britain have absconded after they were released on bail from prison or immigration detention and have never been found.
Of those, 16 have been on the run for more than ten years, and 158 for between five and ten years.
Another 310 have been on the run for between two and five years, while 191 have been at large for between one and two years, and 77 for less than a year.
They can only remain in custody as long as there is a reasonable prospect of officials being able to remove them in the near future.
But in many cases, human rights laws block their return. Other barriers can include difficulties in obtaining a passport for offenders who destroyed their travel documents on their arrival.
As a result, even the most dangerous offenders can be let out on bail by a judge.
Tory MP Nick de Bois said: ‘It is deeply worrying that so many dangerous foreign criminals are walking the streets and urgent action must be taken to find them.